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V IS FLOUR 



OUR PROPER FOOD ? 



WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE EFFECT OF 



ANIMAL FOOD IN CONSUMPTION, 



y 

EPHRAIM CUTTER, A. M., M. D., 



OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



y{ A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE N. II. STATE JtlEDICAL 



SOCIETY, JUNE 16, 1875. 



CONCORD, N. H. : 

PRINTED BY THE REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
1875. 







^i 



IS FLOUR OUR PROPER FOOD? 



BY EPHRAIM CUTTER, M. D., OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



Gentlemen : 

In asking this question, allow me the privilege of making 
the request that your society will at some future time answer 
this question, and officially communicate the result to the 
public, either through your own secretary, or through the 
speaker. I do so because I regard bodies like your own the 
only legitimate organizations competent to answer questions 
of public hygiene, and at the same time sufficiently author- 
itative enough to produce decisions which will command 
recognition and respect. A combined, unanimous, and offi- 
cially announced opinion of the now existing New England 
Medical Societies, on any subject connected with social or 
sanitary science, would have more weight with the present 
generation than the testimony of all the classical medical 
writers of the past. 

" It has lately been urged by Liebig that saline matter has 
failed to receive its due consideration as a nutritive element 
of food. It is perfectly true, as he has pointed out, that in 
the preparation of food for human consumption the natural 
article is often considerably depreciated in nutritive value 



by the abstraction that may happen to have occurred. Meat 
soaked or boiled in water loses more or less of its soluble 
portion, and included in this are its nutritive salts. Roasted 
meat on this account is of higher value than boiled. In the 
process of salting, a portion (about fifteen per cent., Liebig 
says) of the nutritive juice escapes into the brine. In the 
boiling of vegetables, nutritive principles, and particularly 
the nutritive salts, are removed by the water. The separa- 
tion that is effected in the dressing of flour leaves this pro- 
duct in an inferior position to the grain from which it is 
derived. Both the saline and nitrogenous matters belonging 
to wheat are chiefly encountered in the outer or tegumentary 
part of the grain, and are, therefore, more or less excluded 
from white bread. It is a scientific fact, Liebig remarks, 
which Magendie has proved by experiment, that a dog dies 
if fed on white bread, while its health does not suffer at 
all if its food consist of brown bread, or bread made of un- 
bolted flour. Liebig also asserts his belief that many mill- 
ions more men could be daily fed in Germany, if it were only 
possible to persuade the population of the advantage which 
bread made of unbolted flour has over that ordinarily eaten." 
Pavy on Food, p. 145, 1875. 

In this doctrine of Liebig, Pavy is not disposed to coin- 
cide, but thinks that in the mixture of animal and vegetable 
food the loss alluded to is supplied ; and that if, in eating 
bread made from white flour, we from our taste prefer to 
reject a portion of the wheat, " it does not follow that in so 
doing we are committing an act of prodigality, for what we 
do not use ourselves may be, and in reality is, turned to ac- 
count in feeding animals that are either kept for some useful 
purpose, or reared for consumption as food ; and, in the latter 
case, the nutritive salts which we originally rejected in sep- 
arating the bran from the flour may actually reach us 
amongst the constituents of animal food." Yes, — but do 
mankind, who live mostly upon flour, get this animal food 
in connection with flour .-' I think not ; and I wish to express 



5 

my dissent with Pavy on this point, and desire to be allowed 
to suggest tJiat the Jinivcrsal and exclusive use of floitr, as 
found at the present time among the nations of CJiristen- 
dom, may (as Licbig suggests) result in disaster to the 
human race in tJie folknving particulars : 

I. May it not be possible that tlie use of flour is a cause 
of the prevalence of diseases of the nervous system ? 

II. May it not be possible that the use of flour is a cause 
of the present lamentable and astounding prevalence of late 
erupting and decayed teeth ? 

III. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one 
cause of the present prevalence of weak and diseased eyes ? 

IV. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one 
cause of the prevalence of baldness and premature gray 
hairs .' 

V. May it not be possible that the so-called change in the 
type of disease may in some measure be due to the use of 
flour, so universal for the past forty years .'' 

VI. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one 
cause of the prevalence of some of our chronic diseases, as 
catarrh and consumption } 

VII. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one 
cause of the numerical decline in our native population in 
New England .'' 

We shall proceed briefly to give some of the reasons v/hy 
we ask the privilege of making the above seven proposi- 
tions, which, if proved to be true, affect and come home to 
every civilized human being, and in which all have a deep 
and vital interest as citizens and as Christians ; for without 
sound minds and sound bodies states will decay and pass 
away, and the affections and intellect will be so warped and 
hindered that a full, symmetrical, and well-developed moral 
and religious character is an impossibility. 

Dr. Kirkes, assisted by Dr. Paget, both of London, more 
than twenty years ago wrote as follows : " No substance 
can afford nutriment, even though it contain all the elements 



of organic bodies, unless it have all the natural peculiarities 
of organic composition, and contains incorporated with its 
other elements some of those derived from the mineral king- 
dom, which, as incidental elements, are found in the organ- 
ized tissues, such as sulphur, iron, lime, magnesia, phospho- 
rous, &c." Now, there is no other article of food that ordina- 
rily receives at the hand of man such manipulation and 
processes of separation of mineral constituents as wheat, 
unless we except over-boiled food. If the wheat was sub- 
jected only to the simple process of one grinding, meal 
would be the result containing all the elements of the grain, 
which we may safely say that our Creator designed as the 
most suitable food for man. Used in this form, we believe 
that there would be much less decay and disease than at 
present exists under the use of flour, which is made from the 
wheat meal by the miller submitting it to bolting, sifting, or 
dressing. These processes form pollards and sharps and 
bran (as they say in England), or, in our vernacular, mid- 
dlings, &c. The finer the flour is dressed, the whiter the 
bread, the less nutritious. Indeed, the result is much dif- 
ferent from the original wheat, — how different, is shown by 
the following analysis : 

From tables published in Johnson's " How Crops Grow," 
a most interesting and valuable book, deserving a place in 
every library in the land, we ascertain the following : 

Composition in looo parts of substance of 



Water. 


Ash. 


Potash. 


Soda. 




Magnesia. Lime. 


Wheat grain, 143 


17.7 


S-5 


0.6 




2.2 0.6 


Fine wheat flour, 136 


4-1 


1-5 


O.r 




0.5 o.r 


Phosphor 
acid. 


IC 


Sulphuric 
acid. 


Sih 


ca 


Sulphur. 


Wheat grain, 8.2 




0.4 





3 


i-S 


Wlieat flour, 2.1 




0.0 








0.0 


Amount of starch in wheat, 


, 


, , 




. 


59.5 per cent 


" " " flour. 




. 


. 


. 


68.7 " " 


Albumenoids in wheat. 






. 


. 


13 " " 


" " flour, 


. 


. 






ir.S " '« 



It will be seen that there is a considerable withdrawal of 
mineral elements in flour, while the starch is about the same. 
The withdrawal of potash is 5.5 — i-S = If, not quite f ; of 
soda, 0.6 — 0.1 = f ; of magnesia, 2.2 — 0.5 = 4?- ; of hme, 
0.6 — 0.1 = 1, the same as of soda; of phosphoric acid, 
8,2 — 2.1 = li-, almost |. 

Now, as we have stated before, with the exception of over- 
boiled meats and vegetables, there is no one article of food 
that contains so small a quantity of saline ingredients, as 
shown by the ash, as flour, when compared with the normal 
amount in wheat. By our table it is seen that flour contains 
only about one fourth of the salts which nature intended man 
should get when he ate wheat. It should be stated that 
different specimens of wheat vary in the amount of their 
salts, as in their other constituents, according to the soils in 
which they have been raised. This variation lies between 
healthful limits, and is immensely less than the variation of 
flour, animal constituents, and that of wheat, Payen gives 
the amount of mineral matter in wheat from Venezuela at 
30.2 in 1000 parts; do. from Africa, 27.1 in 1000 parts; Tag- 
anroy, 28.5 in 1000 parts ; soft wheat from Brie at 27.5 in 
1000 parts ; soft from Tuzelle, 21.2 in 1000 parts ; our table, 
at 17.7, gives a less amount than Payen. Taking 30.2 as the 
maximum, the deficiency of salts in flour v/ould be between 
six sevenths and seven eighths, so that the amount of saline 
in flour is only about one seventh, instead of one fourth by 
the former table ; or you may more correctly state the range 
from one seventh to one fourth, or, to put it the other 
way, FLOUR IS that article of food in which the min- 
eral ASH is diminished ABOUT THREE FOURTHS TO SEVEN 
EIGHTHS. 

I. May it not be possible that the use of floiir is a canse of 
the prevalence of diseases of the nervons system ? In the 
treatment of these special applications of the subject, the 
reader may notice some repetitions. It is hoped that the 
importance of the subject will be a sufficient excuse, as the 



8 

present effort is intended for practical value, and not as a 
specimen of choice English literature. 

The Roman soldier, in the time of Julius Caesar especially, 
was the t3^pe of the most vigorous manhood probably that 
the world ever saw. For fortitude and endurance in warfare, 
labor and suffering in campaigns, and perseverance under 
hardships, his reputation has not, upon the whole, been sur- 
passed. In his day there were no railroads for transport, 
not many bridges for passing rivers, no Goodyear to supply 
india-rubber for protection to feet, head, or bod}^ He had 
no pontoons, or telegraph, or balloons. No powder, or gun, 
or rifle, or cannon aided him in destroying his enemies. 
His was a hand-to-hand conflict with javelins, swords, and 
battering-rams. He interviewed his foe in person, and such 
was his individual physical power and development that his 
opponents almost invariably succumbed, and Caesar was 
master of the known world. 

How did the Roman soldier come to possess such a won- 
derful strength of physical and mental organization that he 
could accomplish feats of prowess which fill so large a space 
in the history of the world .'' 

We know how he lived, — out-of-doors, inhaling plenty of 
pure oxygen, and exhaling carbonic acid, which was imme- 
diately born off, and its place supplied with fresh air. If 
he had lived in one of our modern houses, heated with stoves, 
and laboriously shut up air-tight, with no ventilation except 
an occasional opening of a door, breathing an atmosphere 
tainted with carbonic oxide and carbonic acid gases, besides 
the animal exhalations, window-blinds and sashes closed, and 
curtains drawn (which is the general average condition of 
New England houses of to-day), we think that his animal 
{anima means breath) powers would not have allov/ed him 
to accomplish his historic achievements. 

But the Roman soldier, besides breathing, had to eat. No 
matter how much fresh air and exercise he had, his physique 
would have failed with imperfect food. He could not have 



developed muscle enough to climb mountains, swim rivers, 
fight hand-to-hand fights, and endure privations, unless his 
digestive organs had been fed with aliment which supplied 
the waste of tissue consequent upon exertion, and the with- 
drawal of the nerve force, vitality, or life, or whatever you 
are pleased to call that dynamic power which carries along 
the currents of our physical existence. In speaking of mus- 
cular actions, we are apt to regard the muscles themselves 
as the source of power. But if we should separate the nerves 
which connect the given muscle, or set of muscles, with the 
spinal or cranial system of nerve centres, it would be found 
that they would become as powerless for action as the engine 
when steam is cut off, or as inactive when its connecting 
belt with the motor is slipped off, so that it is more in ac- 
cordance with the facts to speak of the nerve force as the 
primal power of all the muscular forces of the body. In this 
light we cannot conceive of the Roman soldier as other than 
a person of immense nerve power. It might not have been 
an intellectual nerve power, but it must have been a neurotic 
power sufficient to wonderfully sustain and control the still 
more wonderful combination of mechanical forces found in 
the muscular system. It is very generally acknowledged by 
physiologists that there is more or less waste of nerve and 
muscular tissues during the exercise of the varied functions 
of the human body. No light is seen, no sound is heard, no 
touch is felt, no smell is perceived, respiration is not kept 
up, digestion, secretion, excretion, cerebration, phonation, 
and muscular movements are not performed without a waste 
of the tissues which are the agents of the functions named. 
Now, the Roman soldier must have had just this tissue de- 
struction, and he must have supplied it in his food, or else he 
would have broken down under such severe tests. History 
shows that he did not break down, and it is a very interesting 
question what he mainly subsisted upon. In looking over 
the list of the commissary department of the Roman army, 
we do not find the modern diet table. Fruincntum, grain, or 



lO 

wheat was the main article of diet. A bag of wheat was a 
regular part of the outfit. It was whole wheat, — not flour. 
When the soldier was hungry, all he had to do was to eat it 
by chewing it whole on the march ; or at a halt, or in camp, 
soaking it in water, and then, rubbing up with a stone, eat it 
either uncooked or boiled. Any of the animals he might 
chance to find were caught and appropriated as additional 
food, and were so much clear gain. There might be at sta- 
tionary camps other articles of diet, but in the long run un- 
bolted wheat was his principal food. This being the case, it 
is clear that open air life and wheat are, or were, the elements 
that can make a perfect physical organization. It is not 
here asserted that no other combination of fresh air and food 
does not furnish the same food data, but it is desired to 
emphasize that wheat has the undisputed character of a per- 
fect food. Dr. Nichols, editor of the Boston Jottrnal of 
Chemistry, says he entertains the profoundest respect for a 
grain of wheat : " It is a most marvellous combination of 
substances, admirably adapted for the building up and sus- 
tenance of the tissues of the human body." It is emphat- 
ically the food of mankind. Its history is traced back to the 
earliest ages. It has been found buried with the mummies 
of Egypt. Our modern civilization has adopted it, or, rather, 
preparations from it. The raising of wheat, and carrying it 
to market, occupy the attention of large portions of the 
human race. Last year (1873) it took two hundred and 
twenty-five full-sized ships to carry the surplus crop of Cal- 
ifornia wheat to the markets of the world. The manipula- 
tion and consumption of flour from wheat furnish employ- 
ment for a much larger number of people than the producers 
and freighters ; and if we include those who eat .the food 
prepared from wheat and wheat flour, there is hardly an 
individual in any civilized community throughout the world 
who does not come into the most intimate relations with 
bread, pies, cake, puddings, gruels, crackers, muffins, dump- 
lings, &c., all derived from wheat. The consumption of 



II 

flour as food being so universal and large, may we not be 
allowed to infer that the characteristics of the tissues of the 
bodies of our race must be determined in some manner by 
this flour ? — because these tissues are built up, nourished, 
and sustained by the food which is consumed. 

The old Roman soldier was a perfect animal in organiza- 
tion ; and may we not deem it reasonable to conclude that 
his diet may have made him, or that he could not have 
attained his condition without his wheat or some other anal- 
ogous grain ? What diseases were prevalent among his 
comrades we know not, as no hospital records have been 
handed down to us. In the face of what we know and have 
already stated, may it not be admitted that generally he 
possessed good health ? — for no sick or diseased soldier could 
have done the work that was accomplished. 

Now, of what did his wheat food consist } As we have 
already seen, it had a mineral ash, varying from 30.2 — 17.7 
in 1000 of substance. That it had phosphoric acid, 8.2 ; pot- 
ash, 5.5 ; magnesia, 2.2; lime, 0.6; sulphuric acid, 0.4; sil- 
ica, 0.3 ; sulphur, 1.5. 

Note that phosphorus or phosphoric acid is found largely 
in the albumen of the nervous tissues. It is also found in 
the bony tissues. 

Chemical constitution of nerve (Vangeala) : 

Albumen, .......... 7.00 

Fat, 5.23 

Phosphorus, • . . . . . . . . . 1.50 

Osmazome, . . . . . . . . . . 1.12 

Acids, salts, sulphur, 5.15 

Water, 80.00 

100.00 

Albumen is found solid in nerves. Its composition, ac- 
cording to Scherer, is as follows : 

Carbon, 54.9 

Hydrogen, 7.0 



12 

Nitrogen, 15.0 

Ox3'gen, ^ 

Sulphur. > ........ 22.4 

Phosphoric acid, ) 

But our table shows that there is no sulphur, sulphuric 
acid, or silica in flour ; that it contains only 4.1 parts of ash, 
2.1 of phosphorus, 0.6 each of lime and soda, 0.5 of magnesia, 
and 1.5 potash, the quantities varying from one fourth ash 
to one eighth of what the soldier in question fed upon. 

Here there is a withdrawal in flour of nearly seven eighths 
of the proper nerve food, phosphorus, found in the wheat, the 
main ration of the old Roman soldier. It is probably the 
soluble and assimilable form of phosphorus, — one that the 
digestive system can absorb, and the nutritive system appro- 
priate to its sustenance. Thus, modern, civilized mankind 
are generally living upon a food which is deprived of seven- 
eighths of its nerve-producing, sustaining, and corroborating 
element, pJwspJioric acid. 

We raise the question, seriously, which stands at the head 
of this section. Does the use of flour promote (that is, assist, 
predispose to) affections of the nervous system } Mark, we 
do not ask whether it is the sole existing cause, but whether, 
if mankind now received in its bread eight eighths of phos- 
phoric acid instead of one eighth, there would not probably 
be less disease of the nervous system. 

Eight eighths were designed for man's use by the Creator. 
Eight eighths gave the Roman soldier his nerve energy and 
muscle. Suppose he had had only flour bread, and got one 
eighth : would he not have sensibly suffered .'* Could he 
have carried his sixty pounds of baggage ? Indeed, we find 
that the absence of what Cassar calls fnivienta, corn, or grain 
(not our maize, or Indian corn, which was then undiscovered), 
par excellence, or wheat, from their rations, was the cause of 
tumults, disturbances, and sometimes war. Suppose Caesar 
had started a first-class modern flour mill, and, separating 
almost seven eighths of the nerve food from their wheat, had 



13 

fed his soldiers with the unnatural manufacture : may not we 
be allowed to think there would have been equal trouble ? — 
for one cannot imagine such a large diminution without a 
corresponding lack of tonicity in those tissues needing and 
accustomed to a full supply. To put it differently, suppose 
Caesar had removed 872 per cent, of his soldiers' jDroper 
nerve food from their wheat : would he not have had a right 
to expect only 1 2^ per cent, of energy, tone, or vital force in 
those soldiers' nerves ? And yet, this is just the state of 
things our boasted modern civilization has put us into. Be- 
cause public opinion says that the whiter and lighter the 
bread is baked the better it is, therefore all Christendom 
acknowledges the declaration, and eats the food, which con- 
tains the less of solid, substantial elements, the whiter and 
lighter it is. It cannot be denied that neurotic complaints 
are very common and chronic. Never were there so many 
insane people ; never were physicians called upon oftener to 
treat nervous diseases than at present. How often people 
drop dead from heart disease, found upon examination to be 
solely from the want of proper inervation. How marked is 
the prevalency of paralysis. How the nerves of special 
sense suffer. We have trouble with the eyes, very commonly. 
Our children, if we have any, grow up thin, ethereal, nervous, 
anaemic. They die of consumption, and break down readily 
under the discipline of schools. Then see what a vast amount 
of nervous diseases in woman, in every condition and class 
of society. Go into any public assembly in New England ; 
see the cry of distress and care impressed upon the counte- 
nances, — a cry for something they lack. It is a beseeching 
look. Some say it is from hard work. Well, it is hard work 
to fight the battles of life with but 12^ per cent, nerve food. 
May it not be that the diet of our farmers, luhite bread, 
pies, cakes, doiigJinuts, crackers, deficient as they are in the 
full amount of nerve food, is partly the cause of their own, 
and particularly their wives' decay, and distressed looks and 
decayed teeth, and weak nerves that tremble and shake and 



14 

ache when engaged in services which should be pleasurable, 
— not painful ? Consider, also, the amount of nerve force it 
takes to digest the starch, which is a main constituent of 
flour, compared with the amount required to digest animal 
food containing the same amount of nerve food. Some- 
times cases of dyspepsia (difficult digestion) seem to depend 
upon the fact that the nerve power (so scantily fed upon 
flour) is all used up in labor and work, and in carrying on 
the other functions of the body, so that there is none left to 
digest the food. In other words, the system is too tired to 
eat. What follows ? As a matter of course, the whole sys- 
tem is unnourished, the other functions fail in their full per- 
formances, and if this be carried too far the nervous system 
rebels, and we have neuralgia, headaches, and distress in 
various parts of the body ; and if these things be continued, 
disease results, sometimes followed by death. 

The fact is, that we are surrounded constantly by the 
causes of disease. Vegetation is subject to the same law. 
The moment animal and vegetable systems are reduced in 
their vitality, then step in parasites, animal and vegetable, 
which are called disease. In potatoes, for instance, that rot, 
it has been found that there is a withdrawal of lime to nearly 
75 per cent, of the normal quantity. The aphides and fungi 
and microscopic algae prey upon the tubers, and by some 
are thought to be the cause of the potato rot ; but as they 
are found wherever there is decay, animal or vegetable, it is 
more probable that the loss of the mineral constituents so 
weakened the vitality of the potatoes that they fell an easy 
prey to the insects and spores which are everywhere present, 
ready to act if they get a chance. Our present system of 
agriculture allows the ground no time to rest, and when the 
soluble salts of mineral potash food are exhausted from the 
soil, plants grown in that soil cannot get their proper mineral 
food. The old Mosaic law, of letting the ground enjoy the 
rest of a sabbatic year (one in seven), allowed the undissolved 
lime, soda, potash, magnesia, salts, &c., to become soluble 



15 

under the atmospheric influences, so that when the land 
came to be planted the next year, it possessed the materials 
in a soluble form for making growths with their full amount 
of mineral constituents. They built up, the plants resist the 
aphides and the fungi, and, as people say, they do not rot. 

Dr. Nichols, the able editor of the Boston yournal of 
Chemistry, said that when he gave his land a dressing of 
salts (sulphate of magnesia) then it bore perfect wheat, while 
before it was a failure. The same gentleman has a cold- 
grapery in which he raises large quantities of perfect and 
most beautiful fruit, entirely free from rust, mildew, smut, 
mould, or insects. The peculiarity of this grapery consists 
in having no manure but mineral manure, in the form of 
salts of the various alkaline earths. The supply was put in 
the border outside, and is calculated to last for thirty years. 
Eight of these years have passed, and the abundance, perfec- 
tion, and beauty of the fruits are a growing and indisputable 
comment upon the Doctor's wisdom, and the law of the 
indispensableness of mineral food to perfection in vegetation. 

If mineral salts are so necessary to healthy vegetation, is it 
unfair to reason that animal life needs them just as much? 
And as nerve force is so indispensable a part of animal life, 
do we reason incorrectly when we assert that in our opinion 
nervous disease would not be so prevalent if the human sys- 
tem were fed with all the lOO per cent, of phosphoric acid 
that God intended it should have } Ours is such a bustling, 
active, nervous age, that we need more nerve food than ever 
before in the history of the world. How many of us wear 
out, how many of us suffer, how many of us fail from want 
of proper nerve food, none can tell. One thing is certain : 
the old Roman soldier did not give out until the introduction 
of wealth brought on an age of the most extravagant living 
the world ever saw. If the diet and habits had been kept 
down to the wheat standard in the palmy days of the empire, 
Rome, too, might have withstood decay (other things being 
equal) a much longer time. And what perpetuity can we 



i6 

expect for our own country if we rear a weak race, with 
feeble, nervous systems, on food which has lost nearly 874 
per cent, of phosphoric acid ? 

The subject is one of importance. If the case has been 
made out even feebly, public opinion should be moulded in 
the right direction. This can be done only by united, con- 
tinuous effort of right-minded people. Let these, when con- 
vinced, say so, and become centres around which opinion 
may crystalize.* 

II. May it not be possible that the 2ise of Jlour is one cause 
of tJie prevalence of late erupting and early decaying teeth ? 
Dr. Clough, of Woburn, Mass., in his lecture upon " Teeth," 
says, unequivocally, yes ; so, also, does his nephew, Dr. Har- 
riman, of Tremont Temple, Boston, in some very able articles 
on the decay of teeth, say yes ; and so do other dentists ; — 
but the public are not aware of it, and probably never will 
be, until this conviction is branded in by lecturer after lec- 
turer, dentist after dentist, physician after physician, or, 
rather, medical society after medical society ; for there is 
nothing so difficult as to inform, affect, mould, or create 
thus a healthy public sentiment about what we shall eat or 
wear. Allow me to introduce a short paper upon this sub- 
ject, published by myself in the Boston yoiwnal of Chemis- 
try, December, 1874, giving the writer's sentiments. 

There is no doubt that the decay of teeth prevails to an 
alarming extent, and it is very humiliating to our modern 
civilization to have it characterized so generally by the 
occurrence of diseased teeth. The aetiology of this disease 
is a great, broad, and deep subject. No doubt, many elements 
combine to cause it ; and the person who should positively 
announce a single agent would be dismissed as unworthy of 
attention. Still, it is a matter worth discussing, and deserv- 
ing the attention of the ablest minds. To ignore is not to 
arrest ; hence we offer a few suggestions for consideration. 

"The Chemical News ascribes the potato rot to a defi- 

* Boston yoiirnal 0/ Chemistry, February, 1875. 



17 

ciency of lime and magnesia in the soil. Different observers 
state the percentage of magnesia in the ash of sound tubers 
at from 5 to lo per cent.; in the diseased tubers an analysis 
shows only 3.94 per cent. Analysis of sound tubers shows 
over 5 per cent, of lime, but in the diseased tubers only 1.77 
per cent, was found. A similar observation was made some 
years ago by Professor Thorpe, with regard to diseased and 
healthy orange-trees. In the former there was a deficiency 
of lime and magnesia." 

According to these authorities, a deficiency of mineral 
salts in the vegetations named is supposed to be a sufficient 
cause for decay. Now, it is an interesting question whether 
there is any article of food employed by mankind which is 
deficient in mineral matter. If so, then it should be made 
known to every family in the land. 

Perhaps there is no article of food more generally con- 
sumed than flour, i. e., wheat flour. In the forms of bread, 
cakes, and pastry of all kinds, it enters into every house, and 
is universally used and regarded as the " staff of life." 

Does flour possess a requisite amount of mineral matter } 

To answer this question, Mr. Sharpies, the well-known 
chemist, analyzed for me the " Peerless Flour." He found 
0.55 per. cent, of mineral ash, a little over half of one per 
cent. He stated, also, that the proportion of ash in the 
whole grain varied from 1.65 to 2.50 per cent., so that the 
diminution of mineral food varies from two thirds to four 
fifths. In other words, by the use of floiu', mankind loses 
from tivo thirds to four fifths of the elements that go to make 
up teeth and bony strnctures. This statement deserves to be 
written in letters of gold over the door of every bakery and 
kitchen in the land. Flour has been used for generations, and, 
if we can rely upon Mr. Sharples's statement, mankind has 
all this while been deprived of the greater moiety of the 
mineral food that the Almighty intended it should have the 
benefit of. Is it not natural to expect that the bony struc- 
tures should suffer from this great withdrawal .? — for it is a 
2 



i8 

great withdrawal. Suppose that a water supply-pipe should 
be cut off two thirds to four fifths : would not the supply be 
greatly diminished ? Cut off the same quantity of time from 
the hours of daylight : would not our darkness be great ? 
Take away two thirds to four fifths of our food : would not 
a strong man become very weak ? Cut off air to the same 
extent : would we not lose our breath ? And why should 
the bony tissues not suffer in like manner when their food 
is withdrawn ? I think they do. Perhaps a little evidence 
in the contrary direction may throw light upon this. 

A dentist, whose name is well known, said that he filled 
some fourteen cavities in the teeth of his first-born child by 
the time he was four years of age. He put his family upon 
the use of the whole grains, and the next child had no re- 
tarded dentition, and not a decayed tooth up to the same 
age. The same gentleman says that the teeth which decay 
are not compacted or knit together with the firmness of 
healthy teeth. There seems to be an arrest of perfect devel- 
opment. Though what can be more natural than to repeat 
imperfect development and decay, when from two thirds to 
four fifths of the proper bone food is habitually withdrawn 
from an article of diet which is more largely used than any 
other ? 

The Hon. Mr. Smith, U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
at Washington, D. C, said, when asked if he had ever seen 
Indians with decayed teeth, — " Rarely." His experience 
with Indians is very intimate, and covers a period of a quarter 
of a century. They live on animal food. 

How common it is to see infants not cutting any teeth at 
all, until they are twice as old as they ought to be. The 
good effect of the whole grain diet is shown in Dr. Harri- 
man's second child above alluded to. To be sure, it is only 
one case, and must not be made too much of. 

Now, what is to be done about it .'' Certainly one man's 
dicta amounts to but very little alone. What we need is 
evidence from others. Suppose that every medical associ- 



19 

ation of Massachusetts take up this matter, have analyses of 
flour made, try feeding mothers and children upon the whole 
grains of wheat meal, oat meal, corn meal, beans, &c., and 
suppose they all come to the same conclusion as the writer 
has done ; suppose they officially announce the result : 
would it be long before the general public would heed the 
truth, and thousands of persons would rejoice in the posses- 
sion of that priceless treasure, a set of perfect teeth ? 

Note. Through the kindness of Mr. E. H. Davis, Super- 
intendent of Public Schools in Woburn, Mass., the writer has 
been furnished with the following astounding statistics, em- 
bracing returns from several of the largest primary schools 
of Woburn, a fair representation of the prevalence of dis- 
eased teeth among children : 

•NT I, 1 With sound ti j 

No. scholars. teeth Decayed. 

Lawrence primary, 113 13 100 

Plympton street primar}-, 94 27 d"] 

Highland street primary, 71 25 46* 

III. May it not be possible that the nse of flour is one cause 
of the prevalence of zveak and diseased eyes ? Dr. Hasket 
Derby, of Boston, the eminent oculist, in a late conversation 
with the writer, said those conditions which caused or pro- 
moted the decay or weakness of teeth, also would cause or 
promote diseased conditions of the eyes. In fact, he stated 
that he largely prescribed phosphates in order to supply this 
element to the ocular tissues. Dr. Budd calls attention to 
the prevalence of ulcerated eyes (corneas) among the Hin- 
doos that feed exclusively on rice. Now, the ash of rice is 
only 0.90 of one per cent. (Payen), and that of flour 0.41, 
according to Johnson. Is it not fair to conclude that if rice 
will not give vitality enough to secure perfect eyes, flour, 
which has an ash less than one half the ash of rice, will not 
confer a perfect vitality also, especially when it is relied on 

*See Report State Board of Health, Massachusetts, 1875. Of S80 of the school chil- 
dren in Woburn, Lexington, and Bedford, in 1874, under twelve years of age, two thirds had 
decayed teeth. 



2o 

so much at the present time as the staple article of food for 
growing persons ? 

In this connection we would allude to the fact that ulceration 
of the cornea occurred in dogs kept exclusively upon sugar. 
It is well known that human beings, who live upon scanty 
and impoverished diet, and who are exposed to vicissitudes, 
present a larger number of eye affections than those from 
the higher and better fed walks of life. When the writer, in 
his medical pupilage, attended the Blockley Hospital at Phil- 
adelphia, containing 3,000 inmates, the eye patients used to 
be ranged for inspection in rows of about one hundred per- 
sons at one time. The spectacle was one that was startling, 
if not amusing. So that it is beyond a doubt certain that 
impoverished diet and diseased eyes are connected together ; 
and certainly, if the withdrawal of three fourths to seven 
eighths of the mineral ingredients of an article of food is 
not an impoverishment, it would be difficult to find one any- 
where. 

In the report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health 
for 1874, Dr. Winsor gives the results of some inquiries made 
as to the prevalence of defective eyes among school chil- 
dren. Out of two hundred and forty pupils, fifty-five were 
found with an imperfect vision. We should think that 23 
per cent, was a large number to be found among a healthy 
people. It is evidently much less than the prevalence of 
diseased teeth among the same class, to which we have al- 
ready referred. 

Out of 1,000 children under the age of eighteen years, in 
a large school in New York, 703 were found with defective 
eyes when examined with the opthalmoscope.* 

We call upon the ocuHst to give this subject the attention 
it deserves. We also think it v^ould be a work germain to 
the state boards of health to institute comparative inquiries 
as to the presence of defective eyes among flour-eating and 
non-flour-eating communities. We think the evidence ad- 



•Dr. C. R. Agnew, Meeting Am. Social Science Ass., Detroit, 1875. 



21 

duced certainly does point in the direction that a substance, 
used as food, which is so defective in mineral ingredients as 
flour, may possibly act as one cause of anomalous and defec- 
tive conditions of the organs of vision. 

IV. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one catt.se 
of premature zvhitening of the hair, and baldness ? The hair 
appears to have a life of its own, like the teeth and nails. 
It is remarkable for the resistance it offers to ordinary decay, 
having been found in good preservation on mummies ; and 
how many of us cherish locks of the hair of our dear de- 
parted ones, as imperishable mementos of their history. 
The hair has long been regarded as a sign of vigor, a notable 
case of which is seen in the history of Samson. Hence the 
falling of the hair in old age (calvities) is deemed a natural 
consequence of the impairment of nutrition, and the failing 
powers of life. Sometimes it is general, arising from causes 
that lower the vital tone, and withdraws the nutritive pab- 
ulum, as in syphilis, fevers, anaemia, rheumatism, gout, neu- 
ralgia, fast living, great study, violent emotions, dyspepsia, 
want of cleanliness, over purgating, and lastly, hereditary 
peculiarity, pregnancy, and deficiency of formative forces 
inherent in the system. 

This is a portion of the list of causes laid down by Dr. 
Tilbury Fox, a late and eminent London authority in skin 
diseases. 

The chemical composition of hairs is not well understood, 
but it appears that they are chiefly composed of a nitrog- 
enous substance, soluble in alkalies, with the evolution of 
ammonia, and insoluble in boiling acetic acid. Some authors 
consider it a combination of protein with sulphur (Kolliker). 
Mulder considers hairs to be mainly a protein compound, 
with sulphamid (/. e., N. H. 2S.), of which he finds ten per 
cent. The ash amounts to one to two per cent. It contains 
iron, manganese, silica, sulphur, magnesia, and alumina. Be- 
yond a doubt, sulphur is a large and essential ingredient of 
hair. It is sulphur that gives the characteristic odor of 



22 

burning hair. If this were withdrawn from the ahment 
entirely, we should expect to find imperfectly developed and 
easily falling hair. Grayness is considered the primal stage 
of the decay in hair. Hairs are constantly falling out, and 
as constantly renewed. Sometimes there are periodical cast- 
ings of hair, as in the cases of horses shedding their coats in 
spring. Just so we have periodical castings of leaves from 
trees, as well as constant shedding in the evergreens. We 
have seen the effect the feeding of bullocks upon a diet with- 
out salt has upon the hair, making it starring, roughened, 
disordered, and the skin hide-bound ; and, on the other hand, 
bullocks, fed with the same diet plus the salt, will be found 
with a smooth, glossy skin, showing, evidently, the effect of a 
mineral ingredient of food upon the hair, and demonstrating 
the intimate connection between it and the hair.* 

Now, in repeatedly looking over the analysis of the ash of 
flour, the writer was impressed after a while with the signif- 
icant fact that there was no sulphur in the flour, and having 
for a long time been painfully aware of the prevalence of 
premature baldness, without being able to find any very sat- 
isfactory cause assigned, we would make the query at the 
head of this section, — May not the use of flour promote bald- 
ness, and grayness of the hair } If it is a true proposition 
that the organized substances must have food that contains 
all the mineral ingredients of those substances, then, as flour 
has no sulphur, it is pretty conclusive that it is no suitable 
food for hair, which has ten per cent, of sulphamid, and 
that those who subsist mainly upon flour must expect imper- 
fect hair, and premature grayness and baldness, unless they 
get their supply of sulphur from some other source. 

Commissioner Smith, before alluded to, when asked if he 
ever saw a bald-headed Indian, said, promptly and unequiv- 
ocally, — " Never." 

* During the spring-time, neat cattle require double the amount of salt than at other times ; 
and it is natural it should be so, as this is the season of hair shedding, and consequently there 
is more demand for saline ingredients. to build up the substance ; and as chemically pure salt 
is nowhere sold as an article of commerce, it is probable the animals obtain many other 
salines besides the chloride of sodium. 



23 

Another thing: it is generally a well received notion 
among physicians, based upon the researches of Gruby 
mainly, that the unnatural falling and bleaching of the hair 
is due to microscopic fungi in the interior of the hair itself 
(Herpes tonsurans), or under the epidermis and around it 
(Porrigo decalvens). Now, if the rot of the potato is found 
to be due to the absence of mineral salts, why not the decay 
of the hair, which approaches a vegetable appendage more 
than almost any other substance in the body ? It would be 
interesting to have some qualitative analyses of hair made, to 
ascertain whether there is this deficiency of normal salts of 
sulphur. It is true, that grief, excessive intellectual activity, 
nervous influences, and severe demands upon the nervous 
system, are sometimes evidently concerned in these diseased 
conditions of the hair. Of course, they are outside of the 
present explication. One thing is very certain — the unan- 
imous testimony of those who have visited the abodes of 
savage races is, that they are remarkably supplied with capil- 
lary covering of their heads, except when removed by acci- 
dent or design. [Messrs. Baldwin & Botume, Jr., 122 North 
Market street, Boston, have packed pork for the last thirty 
years. In times past they have received hogs fed on the 
sweepings of flour mills, but the meat was so bleached, and 
the fat so readily fissuring up into distinct masses, that 
the pork was unmerchantable ; and if all the hogs they 
packed were fed on flour, their business would be destroyed. 
They state further, that the bristles (hair) of the flour-fed 
hogs were very zvJiite and thin, so as to be worthless for the 
brush-makers.] In the absence of statistics as to the prev- 
alence of baldness, we must give only general impressions. 

At Gilmore's World's Peace Jubilee, held in Boston some 
years ago, there were present at least twenty thousand people 
at one of the afternoon concerts. The writer occupied a 
position in the rear of the audience, and as the rays of the 
sun illuminated the auditorium, he was very much impressed 
with the number of bald heads of the men present. It seemed 



24 

as if nearly two thirds of the heads were gleams of shining 
light. It would be interesting if we could collect figures as 
to the baldness during the brown-bread era of New England. 
Some, who lived in those days, when questioned, testify that 
as far as they can remember there were less bald people 
than now. This suggestion is new, and needs further dis- 
cussion and investigation. It is thrown out simply as such, 
in the hope that it may lead to some light being thrown upon 
the pathology and treatment of hair. It is safe to infer, 
from the above statement, that the chances for healthy hair 
are better with food that contains the full amount of mineral 
matter than with flour. Indeed, with Dr. Fox's specifically 
stating that premature baldness is directly caused by a defi- 
ciency of formative force inherent in the system, we may 
reiterate our statement by a syllogism : — The system is liable 
to baldness because it lacks formative force. The formative 
force of the system is derived from food. Flour is food 
lacking seventy-five per cent, of formative force. Hence 
the system fed upon flour (other things being equal) is liable 
to baldness. 

V. May it not be possible that the use of flour is one cause 
of the change in the type of disease, frojn strong (stJienic) to 
zucak (asthenic) ? That the type of disease has changed, is 
a fact acknowledged by the regular profession of medicine ; 
and this change consists in diseases assuming that prostra- 
ting type and character which require stimulating and sup- 
porting treatment of every kind. Patients with certain dis- 
eases formerly required, bore, and yielded to reducing treat- 
ment, such as general depletion and active purgation ; but 
now, when affected similarly, they are found not to bear the 
same measures without serious depression of the vital forces. 
Occasionally we meet with patients who do bear the old 
treatment, but they are of such apparent robustness and 
vigor as to make the indication very plain ; and it is possible 
that the profession have swung too far to the other extreme. 

But the object here is to discuss the relations of a diet of 



25 

flour to a weakened condition of system, which renders dis- 
eases of a low, inactive character more readily prevalent. 
Allow us to make a suggestion. Suppose, for instance, our 
farmers should manure their crops for one year with only 
one quarter of the fertilizers ordinarily deemed necessary ; 
suppose they should do this, not for one year only, but for 
forty years : what sort of vegetation or crops would they 
have.? Why, it is clear that the vegetation, as a general 
thing, would be stinted, the crojos small and ill-developed, 
the vitality of the plants feeble ; and instead of pruning, 
reducing, and cutting down, measures of a "supporting" 
character would have to be adopted, as it is doubtful whether 
the plants would stand up of themselves. Something can- 
not be made out of nothing — ex niJiilo nihil fit — is an ancient 
motto. Now, apply this principle to mankind : let them 
feed upon food (as they have done) for forty years or more, 
which contains one fourth of the mineral food which they 
consumed in the days of coarse bread, made out of whole 
wheat, corn, rye, barley, and oatmeal : would you not expect 
a change in the character of the tissues and fluids of their 
bodies .-' As plants would show degeneration, feebleness, and 
stinted development, would you not expect the same result 
in animals .-* The doctrine of the indispensableness of min- 
eral salts to vegetable growths is of modern origin. We 
wish to go further, and apply it to animal tissues likewise ; 
and we feel assured that when the days of fine flour are past 
there will be the old-fashioned type of disease back again, 
because the bodies of the people will obtain their full mod- 
icum of mineral salts. Indeed, in remote rural districts, 
where the old ways of living are practised, the necessity for 
depleting measures is said to be as strong as ever. 

Take our typhoid fevers, our scarlet fevers, diphtherias, 
measles, small-pox, choleras, dysenteries, cholera-infantums, 
and consumptions : nearly all get iron, quinine, beef-tea, wine, 
and stimulants, — and rightly, too, in most cases. Some of 
these complaints are thought by the best minds in the med- 



26 

ical profession to be of a vegetable, parasitic nature, com- 
municated to man from decaying vegetable matter. It looks 
now, more than ever, as if this is so. Should it be proved 
to be so without a doubt, then, as these smuts, rusts, ergots, 
mildew, etc., prey upon the vegetables of impaired vitality, 
so it will be seen that mankind, weakened by living upon 
food containing but twenty-five per cent, of the normal 
amount of mineral salts, has fallen an easy prey to diseases of 
a low type, and typhoid and parasitic character. This sug- 
gestion of the connection of the use of flour with the present 
asthenic type of disease is entirely our own, and no one but 
ourselves is responsible for it. 

And here we would not press the parallel too far, as people 
commonly eat animal and other vegetable food than flour. 
We admit it ; but how small a proportion of animal food 
enters into the diet of common people ! As Dr. Salisbury 
says, we are two thirds animal and one third vegetable in 
our constitution. Yet our food is the other way : we eat 
about seven eighths of vegetable food, and one eighth an- 
imal. It is safe to assumiC that among civilized people to-day, 
the diet is mainly bread, and that bread is flour bread ; so 
that the use of flour as food is so large as not to invalidate 
the general truth of our statement. It is fortunate we do 
have other food, for if confined to flour bread alone we should 
probably become so enfeebled as to die, like Magendie's dog, 
in forty days. It is desired to suggest whether a diet of 
flour, if not complete, would not cause such a degree of 
weakened tissues and fluids as to perceptibly diminish the 
power to resist disease, so that in the conflict with it flour- 
eating patients are found to be the " under dog in the fight,'' 
needing tonics, stimulants, and supporting treatment, to come 
out the " upper dog."* 

VI. May it not be possible that the tise of flojir is one ele- 
ment in the causation of chronic disease ? Among these we 
class skin diseases, cancer, tubercle, catarrh, neurotic disease, 

*See Boston Journal of Chemistry, Feb., 1875. 



27 

tumors, paralysis, diseases depending upon the fatty degener- 
ation, such as apoplexy, Bi'ight's disease, &c. Now, these are 
diseases of nutrition mostly. The functions of nutrition and 
growth are not preserved in the normal state. We are not 
prepared to say but that diseases must and will come, but 
we do ask to suggest that there is no surer way of inviting 
diseases than to impair the vital forces of the tissues and 
fluids of the body by a diet from which seventy-five per cent, 
of the ash .is withdrawn. There are hereditary, physiological, 
and local causes that are to be taken into account, and dis- 
eased conditions seem to have a number of causes, all coop- 
erating and combined together in a chain to produce them. 
Break one link, and the whole chain is broken. The disease 
may not occur, because, so to speak, the keystone of the 
arch is absent. We wish to record our opinion that flour- 
eating is a very important link in the chain. 

Then, as the chemical composition of starch is so much 
like that of fat, — C jg H jo O jo, — when the starch is in 
excess, would it not be natural to expect that the tissues 
would more readily turn into fat .'' 

VII. ]\Iay it not be possible that the tise of floitr is one 
injlncnce in causing the dcclijie of onr native population ? 
Calling in once more the simile of the plant fed for forty 
years in succession on one quarter of its proper ration of min- 
eral food, it is seen that the reproductive faculties are stinted 
and narrowed. The crop of corn, it may be, is diminished ; 
the yield of potatoes curtailed to narrow amounts, and the 
potato population declines. No one, knowing the cause, 
wonders why. To have the reproductive organs, in the 
plant, the bud, the flower, and the fruit, in abundance and 
vigor, plant-food must be furnished in sufficient amount. 
But by the terms of our simile, seventy-five per cent, of this 
amount has been withdrawn. The native population of New 
England is to-day somewhat in the condition of the barren 
tree in the parable, which the lord of the vineyard was going 
to cut down because it cumbered the ground by bearing no 



28 

fruit ; but the gardener stands by, and says, " Not so, lord ; 
don't cut it down till I dig around the tree, and dung it for 
another season, and then if it does not bear fruit it may be 
cut down." In other words, the gardener would stir up the 
soil, aiid break it up, so as to expose as large an amount of 
surface to the action of the atmosphere, and apply manure, 
— that is, soluble mineral food, — and then he would see if the 
tree, getting its full dose of vital force through this soluble 
mineral food, would not exercise its highest and culminating 
function in bearing fruit to please the eye, and afford nour- 
ishment to its owner. If not, why then it should be re- 
moved as cumbersome. Why should not animals have the 
same treatment and fate ? " Herein is the Father glorified, 
if ye bear much fruit ! " How can there be fruitfulness with- 
out the proper supply of mineral food ? And if no children 
are born, how long will it be before the race becomes extinct, 
and cumbers no more the ground .'* Ask Dr. Allen whether 
families were small in the days of eating bread made 
of the meal of any of the cereal grains. Ask him, also, 
whether, in those days, there were two thirds of the chil- 
dren that were born having decayed teeth before they were 
ten years of age ; whether the hair became gray at the 
age of forty years, or baldness common at an earlier age ; 
whether so many young people used to wear spectacles 
as now ; whether there were so many diseases of low 
type ; — and then ask him whether the present low rate of 
reproduction may not be in some degree explained by re- 
ferring the cause to a condition of withdrawal of nutritive 
material from their food, which no husbandman, or Arlington 
gardener, would allow to be practised upon the mineral food 
of his fruit-trees or market vegetables, — that is, give them 
only one quarter of the amount of manure ordinarily deemed 
advisable or expedient* 

Effect of diet in consumption. The effects of animal food 

*In Bolles's Switzerland of America, according to Prof. Sharpless, when the Piute Indians 
are fed on Hour and sugar, their repi-oduction is reduced almost to nothing. 



29 

in consumption (phthisis puhnonatis) is very remarkable and 
favorable. Under its use the cough will generally become 
less, the expectoration diminish, the night sweat cease, even 
if there are physical signs of diseased condition throughout 
one lung. When we understand that nitrogenous food is 
directly applied to the growth and renovation of the struc- 
tures of the body, and that consumption, as its name signi- 
fies, impHes a wasting of tissues and a destruction of the 
same, it is easily seen how appropriately animal food is 
adapted to the wants of the consumptive. The intimate 
nature of this disease is not thoroughly understood, or set- 
tled, even after so many years of investigation by thousands 
of studious physicians. Some attribute it (outside of hered- 
itary predisposition) to defective alimentation, digestion, and 
nutrition, or, in other words, to the want of proper food, 
attended by any influence that depresses the vital powers. 
Recent experiments in Greece, France, and Germany have 
demonstrated that it is communicable, — in other words, con- 
tageous, — by contact. In this country, a physician, whose 
name I am not permitted to use, states that he has the 
records of one hundred post-mortem examinations of pigs 
dying of consumption, induced by his feeding them upon 
sour swill. The writer inoculated six rabbits with tubercu- 
lous matter about one year ago. None of the animals per- 
ished from consumption, although one had a curious tumor 
at the side of the inoculation, which continued for six months. 
It is probable that the perfect condition of the digestive or- 
gans resisted the disease. Now, without looking further 
into the causes of consumption other than to say, that, as a 
disease of debility and nutrition, it would be liable to occur 
among those who eat starch with a diminished amount of 
mineral food. We would like to relate, briefly, some few 
cases that have come under our own observation, premising 
that they have also occurred in other physicians' hands. 

Case I. Man aged twenty-one, seen in August, 1874, pre- 
sented the physical signs of advanced tuberculous disease 



30 

in both lungs ; diminished resonance on percussion, coarse 
and fine expiratory rales, increased vocal resonance, no cav- 
ernous respiration. He had night sweats, a loss of appetite, 
flesh, and strength, continuous, harrassing cough with copi- 
ous expectoration, pallid looks, with every expectation of 
going down to an early grave. Upon being put upon an 
exclusively animal diet (broiled beefsteak mainly), with a 
simple medicinal auxiliary treatment, his symptoms became 
ameliorated and improved, — so much, that in the space of 
about six months he considers himself almost entirely well. 
He has gained flesh and strength ; the night sweats ceased 
long ago ; the physical signs had, at the last time I saw 
him, almost entirely disappeared. In fact, he is so well that 
he has dug out the bottom of a well, and gone to work at 
daily labor in a shoe-shop. This young man had been living, 
before his sickness, almost exclusively upon flour bread. The 
animal food was very repulsive to him, and it was only by 
much urging and coaxing that he was persuaded to continue 
in it. Now, however, he is very much attached to the diet, 
and would not give it up.* 

Case H. The father of this young man was seen at the 
same time, sick with the same disease, longer standing, but 
the physical signs v/ere not so marked in character as the 
son's ; and I thought him a more favorable case, considering 
his age. He went upon the diet, with appropriate treatment, 
but died in a few weeks, saying that he felt very much better 
under the treatment, but that it was too late. 

Case HI. A man aged about sixty-five, a very active 
currier, was seen in August, 1873. He was in great alarm 
about a recent hemorrhage from the lungs. There was 
cough, paleness, loss of flesh and strength ; the heart sounds 
were abnormal. There was dulness on percussion, and ex- 
piratory crackling over the left upper third front ; night 
sweats, loss of appetite. Moping spiritlessly about, he acted, 
if he not did speak, his sentiments of the grave character of 

* He has given up, partially, the diet, and has lelapsed, and will probably go on to die. 



this disease. Animal food, exclusively, with a change of air, 
local medication, with tonics, in the course of the year 
wrought such a change in him that he resumed his business, 
and has continued in it up to the present time, although he has 
exposed himself rather unwisely. Now, it seems as if the 
full supply of nitrogenous food acted in combination with 
other means to restore the tissues to their normal power 
of resisting disease. The physical signs of diseased lung 
disappeared on the last examination. The cardiac trouble 
remained. 

Case IV. A man about fifty, in February, 1874, had a 
severe cough, wasting, night sweats, loss of appetite and 
strength, copious expectoration, diminished resonance, and 
expiratory crackling over the left upper third front. He was 
alarmed and feeble. Though distasteful, he pursued the 
animal diet, taking it as a medicine, and also took some 
alterative drug. The improvement in this case was marked 
and prompt. The physical signs, cough and expectoration, 
diminished and disappeared, and now he appears restored 
to a perfect state of health. It is proper to state that there 
might have been an error of diagnosis on my part ; still, the 
case was one which, if not already tuberculous, was in a fair 
way to become one. 

Case V. Lady about thirty-five — advanced stage of dis- 
ease, which had existed for three years. The symptoms of 
this case were ameliorated for a time by a rigid adhesion to 
beefsteak diet, and medical treatment addressed to throat, 
skin, and stomach, but without success ; for, rather unexpect- 
edl}^ she grew worse, and died in the city of New York. 
The digestion improved, and the diet was not distasteful ; but 
the disease was too far advanced to be checked. 

Case VI. A woman, aged about fifty, was seen in July, 
1872. She had buried a daughter the season before in con- 
sumption, and now she was attacked with the symptoms of 
the same disease (was it communicated by contagion }), — the 
emaciation, the cough, the expectoration, the physical signs 



32 

of dulness in the left lung, and crackling expiratory respi- 
ration were well marked. Under the animal food and appro- 
priate treatment she regained her health, and is living to-day 
in the enjoyment of it. 

Case VII. Man aged fifty ; sick a year ; pale, emaciated, 
coughing hard, cavernous respiration in the left upper third 
front of the left lung, night sweats, chronic dyspepsia for 
half his hfe ; no appetite for anything ; great aggravation of 
the gastric symptoms. The effect of the animal diet was to 
revive his appetite very strongly for those things he should 
not eat. The cough, expectoration, and nutrition improved ; 
but so strong and irresistible was the desire for forbidden 
food, that he gave up his restrictions, went on to eat any- 
thing he liked, and died in the course of two months. 

Case VIII. A woman thirty-four years of age, — father and 
mother both dead of consumption, — with decided marks and 
physical signs of developed disease in both lungs, was placed 
upon animal food diet and tonic medicines, outside and in. 
Although the restriction of the diet was very irksome and 
repugnant, still, with rare fortitude and firmness, she adhered 
strictly to the path marked out, and has been rewarded by a 
return to comparatively good health — she calls herself well — 
and the physical signs have almost entirely disappeared. 

Case IX. A woman with a very young child, that was 
especially devoted to crying by night, and keeping its 
mother awake, was very pale, thin, coughing severely, raising 
largely, with diminished resonance on percussion, and crack- 
ling throughout the upper third of right lung. This was in 
October, 1874. At the present time she coughs but very 
little ; the physical signs are diminished ; the softened lung 
tissue drying up. Her appearance has improved so much, 
that to an observer she appears well. All this time she has 
nursed her child. At present, owing to the hard times, she 
has been obliged to relinquish her meat diet ; but through 
the benevolence of a lady I am able to have her keep up her 
diet a little while longer. 



33 

It is very interesting to see the effects of animal food in a 
complaint so universally fatal, and, unhappily, so very prev- 
alent. More cases might be advanced from other physicians' 
practice, outside my own, tending to the same result. They 
show the great importance of diet in chronic complaints, and 
how that in tissue-wasting diseases a perfect pabulum should 
be afforded as a basis for proper treatment. It would be 
very desirable if some hospital, or sanitarium, for the treat- 
ment of consumption, could be established to test the effect 
of food upon a large scale. The cottage plan of hospital 
would be the only desirable one, as, in view of the present 
doctrine of the contagiousness of tubercle, one would shrink 
from crowding consumptives together in large wards. The 
morale of an organized hospital is more favorable for carrying 
out a regimen than the loose government of private families. 
The very idea of going to some specific place for a particular 
purpose gives a psychological element of firmness and deci- 
sion of character not otherwise obtained. Here is a fine 
opportunity to devote one's posthumous wealth to the doing 
of a real good to mankind, — that is, to found a hospital for 
this purpose, and settle the question beyond a doubt. 

TJie present general tise of flour is condemned. If what 
has been said is true, there is no other course to be pursued 
than to condemn the idea and practice of trying to nourish 
and develop human tissues from flour. We advocate a 
return to wheat meal as a matter of national, dental, capil- 
lary, neurotic, medical, and physiological importance. What 
we want for the United States is a human race with good 
hair and teeth, good nerves and intellect, good eyes, and good 
vital tissues and fluids, that can fight the battle of life with 
disease, resist disease, and perpetuate a noble posterity of 
full physical vigor, excelling in strength and perfect in func- 
tions. As citizens, as lovers of mankind, and as lovers of 
God, we are bound to do our part towards this grand end. 
Given a sound mind in a sound body, what heights of glori- 
ous perfection may not be developed by education and cul- 
3 



34 

ture ; and, on the other hand, how much suffering and pain 
may be averted. 

Liebig first propounded this doctrine, and it is opposed by 
Pavy, on the ground that we do get the proper modicum of 
salts in the mixed diet ; but it is not certain that the diet of 
the average citizen in New England is " mixed " as much as 
he thinks. Potato is the ordinary staple vegetable food, 
which is combined with flour ; but, according to Letheby, 
healthy potatoes contain seven tenths per cent, of saline 
matter ; and, according to Payen, there is one and twenty- 
six hundredths per cent, of lime (pectates, citrates, phos- 
phates, and silicates), magnesia, potash, and soda salts. On 
the other hand, as we have seen in potatoes that rot, the 
Chemical Nezvs has shown that four fifths of these lime salts 
are absent ; so that Pavy may be wrong in his estimate, by 
overlooking the excessive withdrawal of salts from plants 
raised on exhausted soils. 

Diet 7'ecommended. If flour is left out, or made to take 
the place it occupied in this vicinity in our diet fifty years 
ago, our present modes of living need not be much changed 
when people are in ordinary health. Animal food in this 
climate should predominate more than it does now. Some 
people need meat twice daily. Then there is the Indian- 
corn meal, the rye meal, the barley meal, beans, and pease. 
Food cooked by steam is preferable to boiled ; because, in 
boiling, the soluble salts are dissolved out from the meat or 
vegetables, and a higher degree of heat is applied, because 
dry steam is hotter than boiling water. No more elegant, 
appetizing, or satisfying dish is ever served than cracked 
wheat, cooked by dry steam, and eaten with milk or cream. 

The writer hopes to see the time when our cooking will 
be done by steam. He believes it possible, and should be 
glad to exhibit his devices for securing this object. Roast- 
ing and broiling do not remove the soluble salts, and hence 
are preferable to boiling. Broth is good food. 

The preparation and cooking of food are ordinarily deemed 



35 

drudgery. That such an idea should prevail is one of the 
signs of a fallen nature. Cooking is a chemico-physical 
process, of great intricacy and refinement, for the purpose 
of rendering food digestible. It is accomplished by heat, — 
the wonderful laws of which are more abstruse than almost 
any other department of physics. Surely, it cannot be un- 
dignified, or unladylike, or unscientific, or unphilosophical, 
for the most refined and intelligent person to engage in pur- 
suing labors in a laboratory, even it be called a kitchen ; or 
engage in producing remarkable results by the action of heat, 
even if it be called baking bread, or working over a cook 
stove. A more healthy public sentiment in relation to 
these things prevailed in the days of the patriarchs, when 
Sarah cooked the kid for Abraham and his heavenly 
guests. 

In closing this discussion, we wish to ajDpeal to the med- 
ical profession to occupy itself more in directing and mould- 
ing public opinion, by official utterances of their present 
organizations, in relation to diet, dress, and hygiene. The 
action of one individual alone can effect little or nothing. It 
was just so with the weather reports. For a long time there 
have been plenty of meteorological observers all over the 
country, but their labor, however painstaking and laborious, 
availed nothing of importance, until similar observers w^ere 
combined together in systematic contemporaneous observa- 
tions all over the country. And now we have weather pre- 
dictions — eighty-five per cent. true. Suppose all the medical 
societies in New England should investigate the subject of 
flour, and should all come to conclusions which coincide with 
those laid down in this paper, and should officially announce 
the same to the public, would it be long before the directing 
and moulding influence would be felt generally, and for the 
benefit of the mass of mankind ? 

It is sincerely to be desired that the physicians will hasten 
these efforts, for it is high time that our diet list should 
be made out by physiologists, and not by some nameless 



36 

French cook ; that our dress should be indicated and de- 
signed by intelligent artist anatomists, instead of some fash- 
ionable Parisian human being, who is ignorant both of the 
structure of the body and the functions of the organs con- 
tained in the great cavities ; and, finally, that our hygienical 
conditions should be explained by medical physicists, instead 
of being left to whim, fancy, or even cupidity, as they now 
often are. 



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